Coach Wants To Lead Women’s Hockey Team To Olympics

When Karen Kay was growing up in Massachusetts, she didn’t have to look far to find her icy calling in life.

“That was the big Bobby Orr era,” Kay said. “After watching the Bruins, I said to my parents, ‘I want to do that.’ They were openminded and let me play.”

Now 32, Kay is coach of the 1995 U.S. Women’s National Team. She’s guiding a group of women who - much like herself - have gone against the grain to play a roughand-tumble, traditionally male sport: Ice hockey.

“When we started playing, we were the only girls on boys teams. Then we were on a girls team playing against boys,” Kay said. “Now women are going to play in the Olympics.”

Women’s ice hockey will debut as a medal sport at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The U.S. Women’s National Team wants to be there.

Kay and her players were in San Jose this past week to compete in the 1995 International Ice Hockey Federation Pacific Women’s Hockey Championship tournament with Japan, China and Canada. Other such events have been proposed in advance of the Olympics to bring attention to the sport and provide contending teams with a better taste of the competition.

While the sport is still young, women’s ice hockey has been gaining speed internationally. There have been three IIHF Women’s World Championship games in 1990, 1992 and 1994. Canada has won gold medals in all three, while the U.S. team has three silvers.

Karyn Bye, a graduate student at Concordia University in Canada, played for the medalwinning U.S. teams in 1992 and 1994. The 23-year-old forward said the growing exposure of the sport is breaking down barriers.

“I think there’s a lot more people now who say, ‘Wow! You play hockey?”’ she said. “It’s such a challenging game, both mentally and physically. It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman.”

Bye, who wants to coach and play in the Olympics, started playing hockey almost by accident.

“I had an older brother who played and there was this one day when he was sick and dad said, ‘How would you like to play?’ So I put on the equipment and the rest, I guess you could say, is history,” she said.

Women’s hockey doesn’t really resemble the NHL style of play most fans are familiar with. The women play by international rules and there is no checking allowed.

“We’re really geared more toward a European style of play - more finesse plays, more passing,” Kay said. “We don’t really equate to the NHL, and we really don’t want to.”

Kay, who also coaches the University of New Hampshire women’s hockey team, said her players are good offensively but must work harder on defense. “Everybody wants to be the hero and score the goals,” she said, rolling her eyes with the typical coach’s lament.

Cindy Curley, a teammate of Kay’s at Providence College, said most women who play ice hockey don’t necessarily want to follow in the footsteps of Manon Rheaume, a goalie who became the first woman ever to play in the NHL.

On Sept. 23, 1992, Rheaume played a period for the Tampa Bay Lightning in an exhibition against St. Louis.

“I think we’re really just trying to break through and get more competitive on the women’s side of the game. Once the women’s side gets to a certain level, there will be no need to play with men’s teams,” she said.

Curley said she doesn’t see herself as a pioneer. The 31-year-old forward cites the growing popularity of women’s hockey at the collegiate level, and the many women’s club teams around the country.

“We’re happy to do whatever we can to help further the sport,” she said. “But we don’t want to be considered pioneers. We want to be considered a part of the mainstream.”